DRINKING WATER
Why Multi‑Commodity Utilities Need Smart Meter Data Management
Breaking down data silos allows multi-commodity utilities to improve operational efficiency and infrastructure visibility. By managing water and electric data on a shared platform, providers can detect leaks faster and support long-term conservation goals.
DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS
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![Tri-county]( "Why Material Selection Matters")
Why Material Selection MattersThe Tri-County Water Authority (TCWA) was formed in 1991 as a not-for-profit water utility serving portions of Jackson, Cass and Bates counties, Missouri. When the system was first established, about half of the pipe installed were ductile iron and half were plastic PVC. Today, the authority’s 120 miles of pipe are approximately 75% ductile iron and 25% plastic PVC.
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Neptune's R450™ System Helps Get Feet Off The Streets Of Laredo
The city of Laredo, Texas, had been walking to read its 67,543 water meters – 59,138 residential and 8,405 commercial accounts – using a manual method that took up to ten staff on the streets nearly an entire month to read to meet a monthly billing schedule. With the dawn of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems, the City began their search for the right metering solution for the department’s needs.
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![highwayproject]( "Security, Strength: AMERICAN Provides Products Of Choice For Major Highway Project In Augusta, Georgia")
Security, Strength: AMERICAN Provides Products Of Choice For Major Highway Project In Augusta, GeorgiaWork is roughly 50 percent complete on a $30-million-plus upgrade of what is considered the most dangerous stretch of road in Augusta, Georgia.
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![GettyImages-1163184828]( "Groundwater Remediation Uncovered: Effective Methods You Need to Know")
Groundwater Remediation Uncovered: Effective Methods You Need to KnowBecause groundwater accounts for upwards of 40% of the world’s drinking water, it is imperative that these areas are treated and the pollutants removed and converted into harmless products. This process is known as groundwater remediation.
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Biothane Delivers Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment To Veryfine Products
Biothane’s turnkey project was designed to treat wastewater by providing a series of treatment processes. Pre-treatment consists of a bar screen, influent sump, grit removal and rotary screen to remove debris from the influent stream.
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![city-of-lodi]( "City Of Lodi Employs GAC To Remove Contaminants From Groundwater")
City Of Lodi Employs GAC To Remove Contaminants From GroundwaterIn this case study, read about AV's unique Concept to Commission approach which enabled a team to design, manufacture, and install GAC systems and interconnecting site pipe in just 10 working hours.
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Water Surge Prevention: Analysis Of Solutions And Alternatives
Water Surge could cause damage in a water conveyance system, from leaking pipes to serious breakdowns and accidents the consequences of which could lead to heavy financial costs and even loss of life. There are various solutions that are able to prevent or reduce the damage. It is important to know the differences between the solutions, and the advantages and disadvantages of each technology, before recommending the most suitable solution for the system.
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![GettyImages-1444523399 colorado springs]( "Specifying Performance Over Equipment Quickly Reduces THMs In The Colorado Springs' Distribution System")
Specifying Performance Over Equipment Quickly Reduces THMs In The Colorado Springs' Distribution SystemColorado Springs, Colorado, enjoys some of the highest quality drinking water in the country, with most of its water coming from high country snowmelt. Despite its pristine origin in the mountains, the water at the far end of the distribution system is prone to developing trihalomethanes (THMs) due to low turnover and high water age.
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![arsenic_water]( "Eliminating A Silent Killer — A Critical Review On The Viability Of Decentralized Arsenic Removal Systems For Rural Communities")
Eliminating A Silent Killer — A Critical Review On The Viability Of Decentralized Arsenic Removal Systems For Rural CommunitiesArsenic is a global environmental health issue. Since it was recognized in the nineties many techniques have been developed on the remediation on arsenic contaminated drinking water. Solving people’s exposure through drinking water to arsenic is, however, a complex problem.
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![EMEA_CS_WS_Bristol_Water_Quality200520-4]( "Meeting Customer Demands For Clean Water At Bristol Water")
Meeting Customer Demands For Clean Water At Bristol WaterBristol Water provides clean, fresh drinking water every day to approximately 1.2 million people in the city of Bristol and surrounding areas in the west of England. As part of taking inventory on ways to improve its service, Bristol Water undertook its largest ever program of customer engagement. This invited customers to participate in the decisions Bristol Water makes about the future of their water services.
DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES
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Preliminary Assessment Of Water Quality In Riviera Grise Near Port-Au-Prince, Haiti10/17/2012
The Riviera Grise drains water from the Cul-de-Sac watershed, Haiti, which covers most of the rural areas along the flood plains and areas that extend into steep hillsides. It also covers urban areas of Port-Au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti.
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Bottled Water Industry: Liquid Analytical Solutions11/10/2013
Americans consume more than 9.1 billion gallons of bottled water annually - an average of twenty nine gallons per person every year.
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Reduce Or Eliminate Water Hammer With Valve Positioners5/19/2022
Water hammer, which can occur in just about any pumping system and even steam systems, can lead to pipe breakage, equipment damage or even total system failure. Addressing water hammer at the source is the savviest and most cost-effective way to handle the issue.
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Leak Detection On Water Distribution Network Using Clamp-On Flowmeters5/22/2023
A global engineering company realized that their leak identification methods were time consuming and expensive, and so began to explore alternative solutions, such as ultrasonic flow meters.
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SensyMaster Thermal Mass Flowmeter8/3/2021
SensyMaster helps to improve the operating costs of the most cost intensive process in sewage plants: Aeration. High-measuring performance and state of the art technology helps customers increase plant efficiency.
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Determination Of EN15662:2008 - Determination Of Pesticide Residue In Food Of Plant Origin, By An Automated QuEChERS Solution9/24/2014
Pesticide residue laboratories are required to undertake analyses of an ever increasing number of samples. The analyses typically involve use of multi-residue methods (both GC-MS and LC-MS) to test for over 500 pesticide residues.
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Application Note: Busseron Creek Watershed Partnership Addresses Concerns In A Rural Watershed1/20/2010As with other watershed organizations, the Busseron Creek Watershed Partnership (BCWP) exists because of surface water quality degradation. In this case, those waters drain 163,231 acres of a watershed that crosses the boundaries of Vigo, Clay, Green, and Sullivan counties in West- Central Indiana. By YSI
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Scrubber Application1/27/2022
This customer supplies district heating and electricity for the region of Sønderborg. For one of their waste applications a MAG meter failed within 6 months, and was successfully replaced with a Panametrics Aquatrans AT600.
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Pikeville, Kentucky Medical Center Leak Found Despite Ambient Noise6/23/2021
Leaks found in 60 psi high density PE pipe by FELL in less than three hours. Acoustic and CCTV failed to find any leaks after more than a year of investigation. Read the full case study to learn more.
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Active Energy Control – Energy Reductions Of Up To 10% Above Standard Drives4/1/2017
Energy costs continue to increase. At the same time, there is increased pressure to reduce utility bills without sacrificing operations or comfort.
DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS
HYMAX GRIP joins and restrains a wide selection of pipes of different types and diameters, easily and reliably. Due to its patented design, it allows the joining of pipes of the same or different materials and diameters and preventing axial pipe movement.
AQUAFLOW™ SMART VALVE with integrated AMI endpoint provides two-way communication between the service location and our AquaControl™, our Cloud-based web & mobile applications, supporting either Cellular LTE-M or LoRaWAN remote connectivity.
The flowI® 2100 & 3101 series Encoded Meter is a smart water meter based on the latest ultrasonic technology. The meter has no moving parts and maintains its accuracy throughout its entire lifetime of 20 years.
The DE NORA TETRA® ABF bioactive filter combines ozone generation with biologically active filtration for use in municipal water applications. The process targets micropollutant reduction and reduces disinfection byproducts in drinking water and potable reuse applications.
The development of the PTV Series considered every aspect of process turbidity workflow - from installation and setup; daily measurement and control; routine procedures such as calibration, verification and maintenance; to data collection and management.
DXmic Pro is the latest generation ground microphone from FCS. Building on the excellent reputation of the Xmic, the DXmic features touchscreen operation and a wealth of new innovative features. The DXmic has the highest sound quality and supports audio recordings, so playback of any leak noise can easily be accessed via USB. The device comes with a robust carry case that can also be used as a charging station.
LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER
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![pregnant_water-Getty-2207189112]( "Drinking Water Contaminated With 'Forever Chemicals' During Pregnancy Linked To An Increased Risk Of Childhood Asthma")
While most of us are routinely exposed to low levels of PFAS, some communities are exposed to far higher levels from nearby pollution sources. A new study shows that in one of these at-risk communities, children were more likely to develop asthma if their mothers were exposed to very high PFAS levels during pregnancy.
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![wastewater ecological damage-GettyImages-2231956262]( "The Pragmatic Shift In Source Water Protection: Moving From Symptom Management To Root-Cause Accountability")
A shift in how we approach source water protection is long overdue. Currently, we are trapped in a cycle of escalating costs, forced to treat symptoms like algae and invasive weeds expediently with chemicals while the underlying risk in the reservoir compounds. True risk management requires breaking this cycle. -
![River water pollution, Ecological-GettyImages-1215336784]( "The AWWA Said $2.4 Trillion. It Missed The Compound Interest.")
Einstein once said of compound interest, "He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn't, pays it." The same logic of compounding applies to the organic sediment accumulating on the floor of your drinking water reservoir. The longer you wait to address it, the more exponentially expensive it becomes to fix. -
![snowystream-Getty-521971897]( "Winter's Alarmingly Low Snowpack Offers A Glimpse Of The Changing Rhythm Of Water In The Western U.S.")
The April 1 snowpack measurement has long been the single most important number in western water management, considered a strong proxy for how much water the mountains are holding in reserve. But in 2026, that savings account has been woefully deficient. -
![ColoradoRiverDam_Getty-1280300802]( "Why Colorado River Negotiations Stalled, And How They Could Resume With The Possibility Of Agreement")
Why Colorado River Negotiations Stalled, And How They Could Resume With The Possibility Of AgreementThe five most common sources of conflict between people are values, data, relationships, interests, and structure. The current Colorado River negotiations include all five. -
![Water droplets, PFAS, Forever chemical water contamination-GettyImages-2173433890]( "Designing Resilient PFAS Treatment Strategies For Water Agencies")
Water agencies across the U.S. are facing a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that poses a conundrum: Should they take a cautious or aggressive approach to treating PFAS contamination in their water system?
DRINKING WATER VIDEOS
"Wastewater Dan” talks with FOX 4 News Kansas City about drought conditions in California and procedures to conserve water in the home. He also demonstrates the use of a total dissolved solids (TDS) meter to test drinking water quality, and interprets the results.
ABOUT DRINKING WATER
In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:
- Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
- Drinking water treatment of source water
- Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers
Drinking Water Sources
Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater.
Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.
Drinking Water Treatment
Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.
There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.
The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.
The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.
During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.
Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.
Drinking Water Distribution
Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.
A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.
Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.